Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Mim and the Mother Muddle: The Travelling Bookshop # 6 – Katrina Nannestad

    Harper Collins Australia March 2025 Young fans of this delightful series will be excited for this new one, in which we finally get to meet Mim’s mother. The travelling bookshop has arrived in Salzburg, which was not their intended destination, but as usual Flossy, the Clydesdale, knows exactly where they ought to be. And, indeed,…

  • The Only Branch on the Family Tree – Sherryl Clark

    UQP April 2025 ISBN: 9780702268915 RRP: $14.99 With perfect timing, coinciding with this thread of my Mother’s Day reviews, Sherryl Clark’s beautiful new MG book arrived yesterday. At the same time, it has once again re-affirmed that I actually DO enjoy verse novels – certainly, those that have come my way in the past twelve…

  • Brightest Wild – Tania Crampton-Larking

    Hachette Australia January 2025 9780734420657 | RRP $16.99 Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books This is a ‘bright’ start to a writing career for Tania Crampton-Larking, with a whole lot going on in this novel: loss/grief, moving/changes, mixed heritage families, family/changes to family, bullying, climate change, First Nations culture to mention a few. Alex and her mum move from…

  • The Haunting of Fortune Farm – Sophie Kirtley

    Bloomsbury Australia January 2025 ISBN 9781526642783 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $16.99 I enjoyed Sophie Kirtley’s debut novel The Wild Way Home tremendously back in 2020 and though I haven’t read the intervening books (one novel, one picture book), I had high expectations of this one. I was not disappointed. This is another MG novel…

  • Parrot Palace – Susanne Gervay with Pooja Mathur. Illustrated by Sarah Tabassum.

    Big Sky Publishing Imprint: Little Big Sky March 2025 ISBN: 9781923300088 RRP: $12.99 When I had an email from the wonderful Susanne Gervay last year, asking if I would write teaching notes for a new book, quite naturally I was delighted. And when I first read Parrot Palace, I was even more delighted. This is…

  • Dream Goal: Kicking It Football Academy – Jess Black/Mario Gushiken

    Scholastic Australia March 20 9781761527623 $14.99 Whether you’re a soccer aficionado or not, or indeed, a Matildas fan or not, there is not a doubt that the success of the team over the past couple of years has given a huge boost to girls in soccer. In fact, soccer in general seems to be on…

  • Neeka and the Missing Key: Wilder Zoo #1 – Tina Strachan

    Harper Collins Last night (13/03) I had another wonderful evening at Quick Brown Fox bookshop for a Reading Between the Wines event. Tina Strachan was one of the authors, and it was fortuitous that I had just read this first in her series. We all know that so many kiddos are mad for animal stories,…

  • Skippy Blackfeet – Rebecca Fraser. Illustrated by Jennifer Horn.

    Wombat Books March 2025 9781761111662 RRP: $19.99 When you’re in cyclone prep/watch mode as I was a few days ago (at time of writing), you really need to read ‘light’. Whiskers (aka Demon Spawn) who was none too thrilled about being kept completely confined to barracks for fear the wild winds would whisker her right…

  • Little Bones – Sandy Bigna

    UQP March 2025 9780702268878 RRPP: $16.99 I know I’m repeating myself, but I preface this again with the fact that I’ve never been a huge fan of verse novels. But I can tell you, we have some amazing creators who are changing my mind about that. This debut title from Sandy Bigna is hands-down one…

  • Meet Ariana Treasure – Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern. Illustrated by Karen Erasmus.

    Wombat Books March 2025 Introducing a really sweet new reader series for your Smalls who are graduating to early chapter books. This is Ariana Treasure, her family, their thrift shop, their friends and their neighbourhood. Ariana Treasure: The Missing Book 9781761111808 In the first book we are introduced to Ariana and her mum, and the…